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December 27, 2007 email #13

Christmas Day was very low key so holding down the fort was not a hard job.  We had all kinds of visitors who came by our room to wish us a “Happy Christmas”.  They were all on their way to church activities that naturally included a meal.  For them the entire day was spent in celebration. We stayed on campus with only Loren’s shadow to look out for things.  This allowed the House Father on duty to go to his church with his adorable little girls. (They were in the drama)

There is only one student who had no home or place to go for Christmas holiday, so Loren and I took him on Christmas Eve to town with us and treated him to ice cream and gave him a tee shirt. He said it was Romans 8:28,” All things work together for good.” He didn’t want to sleep alone in the dorm, so we had Loren’s shadow come up with his mattress and blanket and stay in the dorm room with him.  I feel so sad that he literally has NO one who cares for him.



Ashok came by with six BOXES of treats.  There is a special bakery that makes a plum cake only for Christmas and it is outstanding.  Also there were eight pieces of layered cake in orange, strawberry, pineapple, chocolate and raspberry.  You buy cake here by the piece, not necessarily by the whole.  I had to put some of it in the freezer, there is no way Loren and I can eat all of it alone. 



Today we went to visit old friends of my parents, the Bajaj family.  This is a Hindu family who is steel and plastic industrialists and extremely wealthy.  Mr. Bajaj was an enormous help at the conception of Prakash.  Mrs. Bajaj treats me as a daughter, and the new guard wanted to know who I was that I could just walk right into the home without ringing the bell.  She was ill so I prayed with her and stayed a while visiting with the daughter-in-law. It is a multi-family home.

There is no way that you visit without treats and tea.  This household is extra special because they have a VERY great tasting sesame seed eight inch round candy treat that is out of this world.  It is so thin that no sesame seed overlaps another.  WOW!!!

One the boys had a new St. Bernard puppy.  He came to me like I was a part of the family. He was simply darling, but I don’t think they have any idea how big he is going to get.  They told us, he is going to be a HOUSE dog. . .the whole house??? This is a snow dog in HOT Nagpur. 

We were blessed with the number of Christmas emails we received.  Thank you all. 



http://www.prakash4india.org

Sylvia H. Eckhardt

Prakash for India